


The Event Subsequently Known as "It"

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Angel Investigations Ships It, Baby Connor - Freeform, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, POV Angel (BtVS), Season/Series 03, Team as Family, everyone can see it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 19:39:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11020197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: Everyone had been spread out in the lobby with a large amount of books, focused on their work, but occasionally exchanging short, quiet conversations with those closest to them. Angel and Cordelia had been engaged in such a conversation when the event subsequently known to the group as "it" happened."Angel, were you just flirting with me?"





	The Event Subsequently Known as "It"

**Author's Note:**

> Time-wise, this takes place just after Connor was born. Written for this comment-fic prompt (http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/820187.html?thread=103671003#t103671003): _any, any het pairing, realizing the other person has been subtly flirting for awhile now_
> 
> Also, I'm rating this as M because there was one line that kind of crossed into M-rated territory. Most of this is T/PG-13.

It was a fairly quiet day at Angel Investigations. Since they had no active cases, the group was helping Wesley research Connor's birth. It seemed to be connected to the "Tro-Clon," which was an apocalyptic event or person that would bring about the purification and/or ruination of mankind. They needed as much information as possible to protect the world and Angel's son as well as they could.

Everyone was spread out in the lobby with a large amount of books, focused on their work, but occasionally exchanging short, quiet conversations with those closest to them. Angel and Cordelia had been engaged in such a conversation when the event henceforth known to the group as "it" happened.

"Angel, were you just flirting with me?"

Lorne was the first one to react by choking on the Seabreeze he had been drinking. Wesley patted his back roughly until Lorne stopped choking and whispered "thanks" with a hoarse voice. Wesley's expression reflected concern for Lorne until he knew the demon was okay, and then he looked with amusement at the pair that had caused the choking incident in the first place.

Cordelia was blinking at Angel with wide, innocent, and curious eyes, but Angel wasn't stupid enough to believe her act. Not for a second. His mouth was gaping wide in bewilderment at her audacity, and he had become even paler than normal, if that was possible for a vampire to do. His fingers tightened on the book he held between them subconsciously, as if the heavy tome would somehow shield Angel from her question.

Angel darted a panicked glance at Fred when she closed her book, propped her chin in her hands, and grinned brightly at the scene in front of her. He really hoped that their conversation a week earlier about "kyerumption" wouldn't come up now. That was the last thing he needed.

The volume in the lobby had dropped considerably from what it had been like before Cordelia's question. Angel could have heard a pin drop in the room over the sound of his colleagues' breath and heartbeats. His sweet baby boy continued to babble, unaware of the tension that had descended upon the room.

Suddenly, a book slammed shut. Angel turned to see Gunn staring at Cordelia with disbelief.

"This has been going on for two years. Are you telling me you only noticed it just _now_?"

"Two years?!" Cordy's voice squeaked when she asked that question. Angel couldn't tell if she was merely shocked or horrified. He really hoped it wasn't the latter.

Gunn nodded. "Though I guess I can't blame you. You're probably used to guys trying to make a move on you who've got game, and Angel ain't got none." He chuckled and shook his head. "Least, not when it comes to you."

Angel scowled, thinking of how he could protest this. First of all, he had never "made a move" on Cordelia (at least none that Gunn knew about). And he totally had game! Right?

Fred slapped Gunn lightly on the arm. "Hey now, that's not fair. You shouldn't say that about Angel."

Ahh, Fred. Angel really was fond of her. She was a loyal and true friend, always on his side...

"He's got game. Dorky and stuttery is some kind of game, right?"

His scowl returned. Scratch that. Apparently, Fred was not so loyal after all. She was grinning at Angel's expense, and she and Gunn were bonding over something that wasn't even true. He was _so not_ dorky and stuttery around Cordelia!

Oh, who the hell was he kidding? Certainly not himself.

"But, but that's just Angel!" Cordy yelled. "Stuttery, dorky, manpire Angel!"

Fred turned to stare directly at Cordelia. "Hon, maybe that's just the Angel you're most familiar with." Her expression held a touch of pity, which was bizarre due to the fact that it was coming from a normally shy and sweet woman. "You've got to wake up and smell the moira."

Ugh, _moira_. Another Pylean word Angel hated just as much as kyerumption. Fred had brought that up in their conversation last week as well. Her voice had taken on a dreamy tone as she referred to the "gut physical attraction between larger than life souls." Angel scoffed internally. That had absolutely nothing to do with him and Cordelia, and he had told Fred so last week. Sure, he hadn't been able to look her in the eyes when he said it, but damn it, his statement should have counted for something!

"Yeah," Lorne agreed. He was the only one other than Angel who knew what that word meant. "I've noticed it too. The vibes from Angelcakes lately have been stomping through my head like a herd of elephants." Lorne glared at him, and Angel remembered how he had sung a few lines of "Copa Cabana" to Connor last night to get him to sleep. He'd had no idea that Lorne was around at the time, or possibly another time he had sung something for Connor. But it wasn't like Angel could control his aura. It was Lorne's own fault for sneaking around and reading people when they weren't aware. In fact, he should be the one mad at Lorne. He was the one who had invaded Angel's privacy!

"Oh," Cordy said. And just like that, his blustery annoyance at Lorne, Fred, and Gunn disappeared under an onslaught of fear. Because her voice was soft, and she no longer sounded like she was in denial, which was the one thing that could have saved him.

He gazed at her and read the look of realization as it dawned on her beautiful face. She turned to look at him, and he drowned in her eyes the way he always did. But underneath the confusion and hint of anxiety, there was something else, something that eluded Angel's understanding. Despite their deep friendship and how well they knew each other, there had always been a part of Cordelia that remained inaccessible to Angel despite his persistent attempts to understand her. He had never found it so terrifying before.

She cleared her throat, but her voice was still raspy when she spoke. "How long?"

 _How long?_ The trouble was, Angel didn't know. His feelings didn't start out this way, but they built so subtly and gradually that Angel couldn't pinpoint a moment when things changed. He had tried, many times, to figure out when exactly Cordelia had become the most important person in his life next to his son. He had failed every single time. Whenever he considered a particular point in time, he always found himself having to go further and further back.

"The Vocah demon." Wesley's voice startled Angel enough to make him jump slightly, but he didn't stop looking at Cordelia. He couldn't. "There might have been something there before that, but after that, things were never the same."

Angel shuddered as he remembered the effects of the Vocah demon. Wesley was right. When he'd seen Cordelia comatose on that hospital bed, he had felt desperate and adrift. He had needed her back.

For a while he hadn't understood what it meant. He told himself that what he needed was Cordy's friendship. But that didn't feel like the truth, or at least not all of it.

Then the Darla fiasco and his so-called "beige period" came. He'd had to shut himself down emotionally when firing the group. If he had really listened to Cordelia when she had pleaded with him, he would have lost his nerve. He'd needed her then, but he had pretended that he didn't because he thought that he couldn't keep his friends with him at the time. He thought he couldn't let them stay and had to go after Wolfram and Hart alone, single-minded and without restraint.

He eventually realized that firing the team had been a huge mistake, and his epiphany brought him back to the group. But there had been a smaller epiphany that he had never told Kate about. When Cordelia had told him they weren't friends anymore, Angel had felt devastated, even if he didn't fully understand why. He'd realized that he needed Cordelia, more than he needed Wesley and Gunn, more than he had ever needed anyone else in his life.

At this point, he had to face up to the fact that "need" was also a half-truth, just like friendship had been. Angel was in love with Cordy, and everyone knew it. Angel couldn't lie to himself or his friends anymore. He couldn't lie to Cordy anymore, and that's the part that scared him more than anything.

Angel was waiting for Cordelia to react to this revelation, when Wesley added to his statement from earlier. "It wasn't just Angel."

 _What?_ Angel was shocked by that claim, and he was even more shocked when Cordelia's face filled with fear. He recognized it. It was the same fear he had felt when Cordy realized that all of her friends hadn't gone insane overnight, or when she finally "woke up and smelled the moira," as Fred would put it. It was a fear born of loving your best friend so much you couldn't imagine your life without them.

Cordy's heartbeat increased in her anxiety, and she started to scoot away from him. Angel grabbed her hand before she could go too far.

He smiled reassuringly at the dumbfounded look on her face. "It wasn't just Cordy, either."

Cordelia gulped, and he heard her pulse speed up when he brushed his thumb over her wrist. It was strange and wonderful to discover that he wasn't the only one reacting so much to their casual touches.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Angel grinned. He was going to have to convince Cordelia he loved her, and he was probably going to have to do it repeatedly. Angel was thrilled at the prospect.

"It wasn't?" she asked. She sounded like she did when she asked if someone put vodka in his blood a week ago. But Cordy was the only reason he was acting like an intoxicated idiot.

Angel shook his head. "I love you." That should have been clear enough, but considering the fact that she said that to him just last week, Angel decided to explain a little more. "It's different than it is with anyone else."

Her breath grew heavy when Angel lifted the hand he was holding and planted a slow, feather-light kiss on her knuckles. Her reaction was only a glimpse of how she might have reacted during the intimate moments Angel couldn't have with her thanks to the happiness clause in his curse (and he could already tell how inconvenient that was going to be with a woman as passionate as Cordelia Chase), but Angel still revelled in it.

She licked her lips. "Angel?"

Angel nuzzled the inside of her wrist. "Hmm?"

"If you don't get up here and kiss me, I'm going to have to break out the Dust Buster."

Angel laughed and dropped her hand. He wasn't planning to ignore her sarcastic threat, not when he'd been wanting to kiss her for a stupidly long time. He stared at Cordelia in awe for a second before he cradled her head in his hands and leaned in to kiss her.

He tried to start off slow and soft, not wanting to overwhelm Cordy with the depth of his longing, but she wasn't having any of it. She opened her mouth and boldly stroked her tongue along the roof of his mouth, which prompted Angel to groan and pull her closer. She pushed his shoulders back against the couch and climbed on top of Angel to straddle his lap.

Angel forced himself to break the kiss. The moment her hips settled over his, he'd imagined thrusting up into her body and making her scream. He couldn't continue kissing her, not with that picture in his head.

He was panting after their kiss, and Cordelia commented on it. "I thought I was the one who needed to breathe. That good, huh?"

"Got a little too good near the end," Angel told her, voice still husky.

She blushed at what Angel implied, and her lips quirked up into a proud smirk. But it disappeared instantaneously at the sound of Wesley's voice.

"Indeed," he said. His tone was dripping with detached amusement. "Considering that you both seemed to forget that there were other people in the room."

Angel knew he had, and he knew Cordelia had too when the blush on her face deepened and her eyes widened in embarrassment. She lifted her leg so that she was no longer straddling his lap, and she moved over to his right side again. But she was much closer than she had been before. She buried her head in his shoulder, and she clung to his side. Angel wrapped an arm around her and cleared his throat.

"We should probably get back to research," he suggested to the others. He was kind of uncomfortable with the way everyone was staring at them, and he knew Cordelia wasn't normally averse to being the center of attention, but he thought she was too.

Angel passed the book Cordelia had been reading earlier to her, and she shot a grateful look at him before she started to leaf through the pages. Angel picked up the book he had neglected earlier and began to look through it.

Eventually, the others settled back into research as well. When they did, Angel felt a hand slipping into his and heard a content sigh.

He turned to face Cordelia and saw her gazing at him with a tender expression. She glanced down at their hands with a smile before she interlaced their fingers.

When she looked at up at him again, her face was filled with a quiet certainty. "I love you, Angel," she whispered, loud enough so that only he could hear her. "I thought you might want to know."

The best part was that Angel was sure she was telling the truth. It was clear in the sound of her voice, the look in her eyes, and the touch of her hand. If Angel hadn't been blinded by his own insecurities, it would have been clear to him a long time ago.

He knew they would need to talk about his curse and the limitations it would place on their relationship, and he knew that any number of obstacles would try to tear them apart. But he also knew that none of those obstacles actually _would_ tear them apart, because Angel wouldn't let them, and Cordy wouldn't either.

Angel's heart was too full for words, so he squeezed Cordelia's hand before replying with the only words that came to mind, lacking as they were.

"I love you, too. I always will."


End file.
